smackhead999's 6.0L N/A FC build

[smackhead999]

In those pics, it was just that side with the wheels.. I hadnt done the drivers side yet.  Did the drivers today.  I need to go back and double check my front height, because the drivers front is riding about a half inch higher than the passengers front.  Ill pull the wheels off and count the threads against each side.

I cant go any lower in the front, because I only have about 3/16" clearance from the tire to the lower perch.  Seeing as there are two different brand tires in the front, its possible the actual tire size is different between the two.  This could be why I have the same perch clearance, but different ride heights...  Thats a pickle.

Tried driving around with about 34psi in the tires and that was WAY to solid... I dropped it down to 30psi front and back.  Its better now, but it doesnt help I have track springs... like 12/9kg.  Its a reallly bumpy ride.

Also, these tires suck... I expected better traction than the kumho 215's I have on the stock wheels, but these Marshal MATRAC tires suck... They are 255's in the rear, and I had better traction with the 215's.  The 255's are a summer high performance... so maybe they need to be warmed up or something.  They are a little old, and harder than the kumho's... so maybe they are expired.  But it will have to do for now.

Other observations:

Road noise is retarded loud.  The T56 is a noisy beast.  The factory Mazda sound deadener sucks ass when you have a V8. 

May have a vacuum leak in brake booster... need to check.

This cam may be more RACE designed than street designed.  Its origin and specs are unknown, but I know, that it pulls hard as hell up to and beyond 6.6k rpms, torque doesnt really get big until 3k rpms, and driveability below 1.8k rpms is really hard to master.

[digitalsolo]

I like the fitment of the wheels, looks good.

FWIW, I added some Fat Mat in my car.   Day and night difference in cabin noise, even with the loud ass turbo.

[smackhead999]

I like the fitment of the wheels, looks good.

FWIW, I added some Fat Mat in my car.   Day and night difference in cabin noise, even with the loud ass turbo.

Thanks Blake.

Did you order one of the 100 sq ft bulk packs for the Fat Mat?

[digitalsolo]

I stole it from BeasTT, so I have no clue what it cost, or how much was there, haha.   It was pretty much 1 of their big rolls.

[smackhead999]

I put together some ducting today.  Hoping it helps.  With the radiator on a 45* angle, I needed to shield the radiators induction from pulling heat from the engine bay.  My design was supposed to allow only air from the bumper grill to be drawn through the radiator as it should.  I need to get some time to let it sit and idle and see how it does.

[smackhead999]

Also thinking I need to get a earlier opening thermostat.  The one I have opens at 186*, and it was suggested to me to get one that opens at 170ish and that should help to stabilize my temps a little better.

I also received my new Hyperco springs in 8/6kg and they are much better.  Gonna be ordering some replacement tires for the front soon too so that my rear tires will be taller than the fronts, and then get the rear sway bar removed.  I am making moves to getting this car to handle better in corners as it seems a bit unsettled in the corners now.

[smackhead999]

I decided yesterday that I will be swapping everything over to a new chassis over the cold months.  In a month or so, it will be too cold to drive the 7 around safely.  I have an 88 base chassis that is almost in perfect condition, that I will drag into the barn and begin modifying for the spring.

The new chassis will hopefully end up with a nice shaved engine bay, plenty of heat protection on the underside (firewall, trans tunnel, etc.), nice paint (inside and out), all straight undented body panels.  And the drivetrain from my current chassis after an engine rebuild, higher compression heads, long tube headers, improved exhaust design either with a modified grannys trans brace or maybe the Ronin piece.  Considering also, a custom ground cam for the mods.  I will swap over the subframes front and rear from my GXL, with the 5 lug hubs and turbo brakes, along with new suspension bushings that are long overdue.

I will probably end up with the poorboy long tubes one way or another.  There seems to have been good stuff with the 94-95 5.0L Mustang headers, so maybe the pacesetters as they are cheap.  Unfortunately it looks like they only come in 1 5/8" and not 1 3/4".  We will see what happens.

All of this will give me a chance to improve on my "secondary subframe" that I built to support the radiator and the undertray that I havent made yet.  I hadnt gone this far yet because I dont have the front bumper I want yet, and that the front end of the chassis currently with the swap is not straight from front end collisions.

As far as the engine goes, my main concern is to get the compression up to make better use of the midrange.  With the 6.0 block and the 317 heads, especially with the cam I have, good power isnt really mad until about 4k rpm.  There is also quite a bit of cam surge below 1800 rpm.  I really dont wanna spend big bucks on new custom heads, so will probably just get 799 or 243 heads and I hear that is a better option than getting my current 317 heads milled for higher compression.

[smackhead999]

Eek... Considering switching over to paddle shifted auto tranny.  Took my brother for a ride the other day and he commented on how cool it would be to have paddle shifting.   Now I think I wanna give that a shot.  Put a thread up trying to get more intel on it.

[jparker7]

paddle shifting is gay.  Other then that I like the build so far. 

[smackhead999]

paddle shifting is gay.  Other then that I like the build so far.

Thanks. 

[largeorangefont]

Looking good. Glad you got the springs swapped out too. I was wondering what you were doing about your radiator setup based on your questions in my thread.  Are you going ot run a vent in the hood over your radiator?

[smackhead999]

Looking good. Glad you got the springs swapped out too. I was wondering what you were doing about your radiator setup based on your questions in my thread.  Are you going ot run a vent in the hood over your radiator?

wasnt planning on it.  Just wanna get a radiator short enough to mount it straight up and down, with a fan/shroud combo on the back, and full, 4 sided ducting all the way to the bumper inlet.  Thinking that will be more efficient, even with the smaller surface area radiator, than running the bigger one at a 45* angle and ducting.

Considering auto tranny now, so I will also need to consider a cooler for that into my new design..

Was just  thinking, because of the large height of the radiator I have now, the top is  almost on the waterpump pulley, and the bottom is touching the very bottom edge of the bumper inlet.  With this arrangement, there isnt much room between the surface of the radiator and the structures behind the bumper.  Effectively, there is no room for the high pressure air coming in to expand to low pressure before flowing through the radiator.  The space that the air moves to once inside the bumper doesnt increase with volume, which I think not helping to promote movement from high pressure to low pressure.

So, in the new design, the ducting will go from the bumper inlet size and move smoothly to the entire surface area of the radiator with no bends for the air to travel.  That should help flow of high pressure bumper inlet to low pressure radiator surface.

[largeorangefont]

Yea you should just copy my setup when you go to a new chassis. Right now you don't have anywhere for the air to go after it passes through the radiator, especially with the ducting for the intake. It may overheat when you start driving it hard.

Plus the intake is picking up the hot air wash off the radiator.

[smackhead999]

Well the idea was that it would travel through the radiator and with the 45* angle, that the air would travel out the bottom of the engine bay in front of the engine.  Not sure how thats working out, but I think my main problem right now is the lack of volume expansion (low pressure) to draw the air to the radiator.

[dream36realms]

I got mine the opposite direction. My radiator tilts forward into the hood mount brace. The bottom comes close to the balancer. I still cant get my Taurus fan in there without rubbing on the WP pulley though.